CFS appoints Group CEO but Coombe remains ‘close’

After more than three years as executive chairman of Colonial First State (CFS), Rob Coombe is moving to become non-executive chairman following the arrival early next year of the company’s first Group Chief Executive, Clive van Horen.

The announcement of van Horen’s appointment came just hours after it had been announced that he had resigned from his role as the chief executive of Suncorp Bank.

While Coombe is expected to continue close involvement with the running of the business, the messaging from CFS was that van Horen would run the overall day to day business.

“Mr Coombe will remain closely engaged with the business as non-Executive Chairman, having successfully completed the sale process to KKR, subsequent separation from CBA and established the plan and the team to enable CFS to build a successful business over the next 5 years,” the company’s formal announcement said.

van Horen comes to the CFS role having spent the past three years with Suncorp Bank before which he held executive roles across the Commonwealth Banks’s retail and business banking businesses including as general manager, retail products – something which saw him appear before the Royal Commission in to Banking, Superannuation and the Financial Services Industry.

Coombe was recruited to the executive chair role at CFS in April 2021 after chairing MLC Wealth and having earlier been the chief executive of Westpac’s BT Financial Group.

CFS said that Coombe would continue as executive chairman until van Horen started his new role on 15 January, next year, and would thereafter transition to his non-executive chairman role.